Toronto Maple Leafs October Prospect Update
October is finally here, it’s tough enough just to keep up with the NHL so we will be keeping you up to date with all of the Toronto Maple Leaf’s prospects outside of the NHL and AHL.
Hockey is finally here for the 2019/20 season. The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to hot start and the Toronto Marlies won their season opener also. There will be dark days though, like this loss to the Habs, and on those days it’s nice to escape the NHL and focus on something that isn’t the Toronto Maple Leafs.
To help with that escape, we will releasing updates throughout the year on the Toronto Maple Leafs prospects. We will divide these updates into two categories:
- European Prospects
- North American Prospects
The European prospects will include prospects playing in any European league and the North American prospects will include players from the NCAA, USHL and CHL.
We haven’t included any prospects playing in any of the professional North American leagues, AHL or NHL. We will be routinely writing about the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Marlies, so updating individual prospect numbers from those leagues would be a waste when much more in-depth analysis is available.
All information from this article: hockeydb.com, eliteprospects.com, and nhl.com
Before reading any further, here are the league websites each of the prospects discussed in this article belong too. This will allow you to better follow along with any of the prospects mentioned in this article.
USA – NCAA and USHL
Mike Koster
Drafted – 2019, Round 5, #146
Age-18, Left handed Defenceman, 5’9, 172lbs
Where exactly Mike Koster will be spending his 2019/20 season is still somewhat confusing. Koster appeared in pre-season games with Tri City Storm of the USHL, however his name doesn’t appear on the regular season roster.
There doesn’t seem to be any mention anywhere of exactly what’s happening here. Hopefully, the University of Minnesota commit, gets a full season under his belt before his college career begins in 2020/21.
Ryan O’Connell
Drafted – 2017, Round 7, #203
Age-20, Left handed Defenceman, 6’1, 185lbs
Ryan O’Connell is heading into his second season of college hockey at Harvard. Last season O’Connell was the tied least productive defenceman for Harvard putting up just 2 points in 31 games.
Positives can be taken from O’Connell’s first season though, both points came in his final 10 games and despite his poor production he remained a mainstay on their blueline. Harvard get their 2019/20 season underway against Dartmouth on the first of November.
Nicholas Abruzzese
Drafted – 2019, Round 4, #124
Age-20, Centre, 5’9, 161lbs
The leading point scorer from the USHL in 2018/19 will begin his college career with Harvard this coming season.
Having looked impressive at the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp, he will look to take his confidence from last season and camp into his first year of college. Abruzzese dominated in the USHL last season, leading the league with a whopping 80 points, 20 more than the second highest scorer.
Whilst his prospect calibre comes with an asterisk, due to him being passed over in two consecutive years before 2019. He looks to be legitimate late bloomer, how he fairs against tougher competition in college will give us a much better idea of exactly how high we can be on him. Nick joins fellow Leafs prospect, Ryan O’Connell, at Harvard, where they will begin their season on November 1st.
James “JD” Greenway
Drafted – 2016, Round 3, #72
Age-21, Left handed Defenceman, 6’5, 212lbs
Greenway got his career back on track last season, leading the Dubuque Fighting Saints in defenceman scoring with 33pts (9-24-33) in 58 games. Following his draft year, JD had off ice issues at the University of Wisconsin which seemed to scupper the progress of his on ice career.
Having made the mature decision to reset, this season at the University of Maine is a really important one for big man to prove his draft calibre was correct. The University of Maine have also lost 5 of their top 6 for this season, giving JD a real opportunity to lock himself in as the main player on their back end. Maine began their season on Friday with a 7-0 loss to Providence College.
CHL – Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Zachary Bouthillier
Drafted – 2018, Round 7, #209
Age-19, Goaltender, 6’2, 190lbs
Bouthillier is coming off back to back sub .900 seasons. The Leafs already have Joseph Woll and Ian Scott in the system and under contract.
This is the last season Bouthillier’s rights remain with the Leafs, unless he can bring a real improvement in his game, it’s unlikely we ever see him ink a deal with Toronto at any level.
In his 5 games of 2019/20 so far, Bouthillier is 3-2 with a 3.82GAA and .908SV%. In each of Bouthillier’s games so far, he has seen over 30 shots, seeing 41 and 54 in his two losses.
Mikhail Abramov
Drafted – 2019, Round 4, #115
Age-18, Centre/Winger, 5’11, 154lbs
Mikhail Abramov has began his first year as a prospect of the Toronto Maple Leafs with a bang. He’s leading the Victoriaville Tigres with 8 points (4-4-8) in 7 games.
Victoriaville haven’t got off to an ideal start, having won only 2 of their first 7 games. Although not a great team, Abramov is clearly one of the key play drivers for Victoriaville.
Both of their wins came in the last two games, in the first win Abramov was the first star with a hattrick and an assist. If Victoriaville can have success this year, much of the offensive pressure will lie on Abramov’s shoulders.
CHL – Western Hockey League
Filip Kral
Drafted – 2018, Round 5, #149
Age-19, Left handed Defenceman, 6’1, 172lbs
Filip Kral is heading into his final year as a prospect of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kral has been a very consistent player for Spokane over the years and has the ability to play both sides of the ice, which is a huge bonus if the Leafs were to offer him a deal.
In his 5 games of 2019/20, Kral has put up 3 points (1-2-3) and in each of his games he has been a positive goal differential player when on the ice. The only hurdle in Kral shining this season for Spokane is that Ty Smith was once again a late cut from New Jerseys camp, meaning Kral will remain behind him on the pecking order for his final season.
Riley Stotts
Drafted – 2018, Round 3, #83
Age-19, Centre/Winger, 6’0, 185lbs
Riley Stotts entered to the WHL as a real prospect but struggled to find his feet early. After inserting himself as one of the core offensive weapons for the Calgary Hitmen last season, Stotts, like Kral, will be looking to make waves in 2019/20 to force Toronto’s hand in his last year under the Leafs control.
Riley has put up 4 points (3-1-4) in 4 games on what should be a very competitive Calgary line-up. Having lost Mark Kastelic, the Hitmen’s top centre from last season, it will be interesting to see if Riley can lock himself in as the top man on a Calgary team looking to go all the way.
CHL – Ontario Hockey League
Kalle Loponen
Drafted – 2019, Round 7, #204
Age-18, Right handed Defenceman, 5’11, 187lbs
Kalle Loponen joined the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL for this season, having spent last season in the Mestis which is Finland’s AHL. Considering Loponen had what were very impressive numbers in a professional men’s league in Finland, it was an interesting choice to see him move over to North America to play junior.
Loponen had a rough start to life in the OHL, going pointless in his first 5 games where Sudbury scored 24 goals. He finally managed a pair of powerplay assists against a bottoming Peterborough team in his sixth game.
Once Loponen finds his feet, it would be a surprise not to see him begin to really find his stride considering his success at a professional level already.
Semyon Der-Arguchintsev
Drafted – 2018, Round 3, #83
Age-19, Centre, 5’10, 163lbs
SDA, who was some kind of enigma, looked very impressive as a late cut from the Toronto Maple Leafs camp in 2018, somehow faltered in 2018/19. He looks to be doing his best to turn that tide this year and prove why Toronto gave a third round pick an NHL contract before he even began his D+1 year.
SDA has jumped out of the gates scoring in all games this season, with four of those games being multi point games, placing him on 14 points (2-12-14) from just 5 games played. On a top line with fellow Leafs prospect, Nick Robertson, SDA is showing his high-end offensive talent and doing his best to drag a poor Peterborough team, kicking and screaming, into some level of competitiveness.
Probably most impressive is that SDA has been showing some consistency, being one of the three stars in four of his five games so far this season. He has also been a net positive goal differential player in all but one of his games so far.
Nicholas Robertson
Drafted – 2018, Round 2, #53
Age-18, Left Winger, 5’9, 164lbs
Nick Robertson, just like line mate SDA, has exploded in offensive production for the start of his 2019/20 season. Robertson has tallied 11 points (7-4-11) in 5 games. Robertson and SDA’s games complement each other perfectly, with SDA assisting on six of Robertson’s seven team leading goals.
Robertson currently holds the title of the Toronto Maple Leafs top prospect outside of the NHL or AHL. This season couldn’t have begun better and with SDA riding shotgun, the Peterborough Pete’s are a team Leaf fans should be keeping tabs on all season.
Next. Leafs Top Ten Prospects. dark
Let us know who you’re most excited for this season and who you expect not to make the impact they could.